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Sunday, August 6, 2017

Memories of Staff Development Program at University of Kelaniya

While being a lecturer in University of Colombo School of Computing, I had a requirement of following a staff development program as one of the conditions to get confirmed in my position. Even though I have expertized in my own field of study, there's no doubt that I'm not a complete person as a lecturer. How to properly involve in the teaching and learning process as a lecturer is something I have to learn separately. The university grants commission (UGC) of Sri Lanka has accredited several staff development programs (SDC) offered in different universities in Sri Lanka. Among these, I selected the SDC program in University of Kelaniya for me.

Since, I did my bachelors degree in University of Colombo and joined the staff of the same university, I had never got a chance to participate to a course in another university in Sri Lanka as a student. I have been to University of Sri Jayawardanepura, but as a visiting lecturer, not as a student. Therefore, me joining the SDC program in University of Kelaniya is the first time I played the student role in another university. Prof. Dilkushi Wettewe who was the director of the SDC program then, assisted me so much when I contacted her to get further details. Even though University of Kelaniya is located a little bit far away from University of Colombo, I considered it has a positive change to visit a new place and be a student. It indeed became a whole new experience.

The course was scheduled to be in every Friday and the course goes from the morning to the evening across the whole day. The participants to the course included new lecturers from various universities in Sri Lanka such as University of Kelaniya, University of Vocational Technology and Bhikkhu University Anuradhapura. I was the only participant from University of Colombo. Before attending to the course, I never realized that I have so much to learn about teaching and learning process as a lecturer. The course starts with the introduction to the university system in Sri Lanka and how the parliamentary acts have formally established the universities in Sri Lanka. Throughout the course, we studied various aspects of university education. The most exciting thing I came across by attending to the SDC program is the participants I got to know there. I believe that the contacts I made with the people will remain for the rest of my carrier.

At the last day of the course, we had a little ceremony to award the certificates to the attendees of the course where I performed the vote of thanks. I was lucky to receive a best portfolio award which was awarded only to 5 participants of the course. I'm really happy about the opportunity I got to take part in the program.